Human For A Day
by a.s.hai
Summary: Caroline is turned human for a day and Stefan is paranoid that she might hurt herself.


He hears a slight scuffle from the lounge room when he steps into the house, and it's enough to set him on edge.

"Caroline?" He calls, and takes out a wooden stake from under the throne in the living room.

"In here Stefan. Damon and I are just hanging out, sort of." Caroline calls out in reply, and he lets go of the wooden stake and instead heads towards the stairs.

It's not until he's in the shower a few moments later that he realizes what was strange about the whole situation. He cocks his head to the side, listening out.

And there it was, his worst fears confirmed.

It was the sound of Caroline's very human heart beat.

—–

"What the hell did you do?" He strides angrily into the living room as Damon scrambles to his feet, backing away from him with his hands held out in a placating gesture.

"Well that took longer for him to realize than exp-" His hand wrapping around Damon's throat shuts him up well enough, even as Caroline lets out an exasperated sigh from behind him.

"Stefan, please stop strangling your brother and let him explain what happened."

He releases Damon immediately, striding over to her and taking her face between his hands.

"Are you alright?"

Caroline rolls her eyes.

"I'm human Stefan, not dead. Besides, Bonnie and her witchy contacts said that it would only be temporary anyway."

He wraps an arm around her protectively, unsure as to how to go about dealing with the current situation.

"Why were you hanging around witches exactly?" He asks her, turning a steely gaze upon his brother, who at least had the good sense to look slightly guilty about the whole thing.

"We weren't hanging around with witches." Damon adds, fingers forming air quotes as she speaks. "Caroline had expressed some interest in visiting the armory, so I took her along with me. As it turns out, Caroline managed to knock over some powder and boom, here she is as a human."

"It's not permanent Stefan." Caroline interjects softly. "I'll be fine in a day, and then I'll be a vampire again. I promise."

Caroline stands, letting out a hiss as she inspects her finger, which is even now welling up with a bead of blood.

Damon's wide eyed gaze mirrors Stefan's own as they both turn to look at Caroline, who sucks her finger into her mouth to stem the dripping blood.

"What are you both looking at me like that for? It's just a bit of blood; it's not going to kill me."

Damon goes blurring out of the room, yelling over his shoulder as he goes.

"I'll get the first aid kit!"

—-

"Maybe you should just stay inside this afternoon." Stefan remarks worriedly as Caroline gets ready to do her weekly grocery shop.

"Stefan, it's fine. Damon is going with me, and we're just popping down to the store and back. No side distractions, no alternate routes. I promise."

"Ok." He agrees skeptically.

—–

Of course, it takes all of ten minutes after Caroline and Damon had walked out the door, for him to start worrying.

What if she fell over and hurt herself?

What if Damon was being idiotic and let her get hit by a car?

All of the possible scenarios began to rapidly pile up, and it only took a few more seconds for him to grab his jacket and blur out the front door.

His gaze zeroes in on her and Damon. Damon is allowing her to walk on the footpath on the side closest to the road, the idiot. Did he have no sense of decorum at all? A gentleman always allowed the lady to walk on the inside, just in case they were hit by a carriage or a car or whatever the hell passed for transport these days.

He trails them almost absentmindedly for a couple of blocks, but of course, predictably, Damon turns and spots him, and lets out a loud bark of laughter. Even with human reflexes, it's easy enough for Caroline to follow the line of Damon's gaze, and her ensuing glare is one that he does not want to be on the receiving end of again.

She's glorious in her anger as she looks both ways before storming across the road, and soon enough she's standing in front of him, all 5′8inches of bristling, self righteous fury.

"Were you following me?" She hisses, still low enough for his enhanced hearing to pick up.

He doesn't deign to give her an answer, and is instead amused when she stamps her foot against the pavement, wincing a little at the jolt it sends through her bones.

"Stefan I'm not made of porcelain, it's fine okay?"

He grips her gently around the wrist, pulling her towards him, wrapping her in his arms.

"I would do anything to keep you safe. You know that don't you?"

She can feel the moment that she melts against him, and she's burying her head into his chest and letting out a breath.

"I love you." She tells him simply, and if he had a heart it would be skipping a beat right now, because he never gets tired of hearing those words fall from Caroline's lips.

They pause for a moment, and then Caroline is reaching down to take his hand in hers.

"Come on then. If you're going to come, you get to carry the shopping basket. I'm not sure I can carry the weight at the moment." She says with a wicked smile.

And as always, he can't help but follow her lead.


End file.
